


Loose Connection

by diamondforger



Series: Whumptober 2020 [12]
Category: Kamen Rider (1971)
Genre: Cyborg Anatomy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26887786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diamondforger/pseuds/diamondforger
Summary: Hayato experiences a malfunction and asks Taki for help fixing it.
Relationships: Hongo Takeshi/Taki Kazuya (mentioned), Ichimonji Hayato/Taki Kazuya
Series: Whumptober 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945867
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Loose Connection

**Author's Note:**

> No 12. I THINK I’VE BROKEN SOMETHING  
>  **Broken Down** | Broken Bones | **Broken Trust**

Hayato hadn't wasted time learning about his new body. It'd been hard to get to his insides, but once he'd opened himself up, it was simple to change things. It was the only way he could think of to reclaim some control over the unfortunate situation he'd found himself in. 

It had been going well until one of the modifications didn't take. A hard knock in a fight and something dislodged, rendering his entire right arm useless. He knew he'd have to go in later and redo the connectors, make sure there were redundancies and check the fit of everything. 

Later, he could fix it. Now, he just needed someone to put the damn thing back in its spot so he could use his bike properly. 

And there was only one person around to help. 

"I need you to do something for me," Hayato said, cradling his immobile arm. He didn't know Taki that well, not yet, but the man seemed trustworthy. He'd already saved Hayato's skin a couple times, despite his clear annoyance whenever Hayato showed up unannounced and interfered with his plans. 

"Did you break something?" Taki had already noticed the problem. He looked confused, but that was to be expected. He knew Hayato was near indestructible, clearly this wasn't a normal injury. 

"Yes," Hayato laughed nervously, "Something is broken, just not what you'd expect."

Taki was giving him a weird look. That was strange. He'd worked with Hongo. Hongo had to have been injured like this at some point. 

"I'm a cyborg," Hayato said, letting his arm drop, swinging uselessly at his side, "My insides are a fair bit different than yours, it's not a bone that's broken."

"I don't know if I can help with that." 

"It's not that complicated," Hayato was fumbling with his clothes. It was a struggle to unzip his jumpsuit with one hand. 

Taki sighed and walked over to Hayato. He unzipped the suit and pushed it off Hayato’s shoulders, guiding the immobile arm through the sleeve. 

Quick, efficient, but gentle. Hayato bit back a flirtatious comment. Taki didn’t seem in the mood for banter. 

He started rolling up Hayato’s sleeve and Hayato grabbed the man’s hand. “You can’t get to it through there.”

“So it's your shoulder?” Taki hands were on the hem of Hayato’s undershirt, lifting it up. 

“Yes.” Hayato heart rate jumped. He’d never been self conscious about his body before, but he hadn’t shown anyone the after-effects of his recent experiments. If he’d known a very pretty man would be stripping him, he might have a done a better job cleaning up the mess. “But you’re going to have to go through my chest to get to it.” 

Taki froze halfway through pulling off Hayato’s shirt up, staring at his exposed chest. 

“Does Hongo look like this too?” Taki asked quietly. 

“Probably not.” Hayato took a step back, finishing pulling off his shirt. “Most of these were made by me.”

Taki stepped back, eyes tracing the jagged scars that snaked over Hayato’s body. “You did this to yourself?” he asked incredulously. 

“It doesn’t hurt that much.” Hayato dug his fingers into a crevice along his sternum. After a little wiggling around, he knocked the piece loose and took it in his hand. “I would hardly be an unstoppable solider if I couldn’t handle a tune up.” 

“That’s...” Taki barely hid his nausea as he looked away from the hole in Hayato's chest. His face was pale. 

Hayato should have expected the reaction. His body was horrifying. He'd just... forgotten how horrifying it was. Or maybe he'd just never processed it in the first place. It wasn't like he'd had a choice, he'd needed to get adjusted and fast. He hadn't let himself think too much about it for fear he'd loose his nerve. 

"It's not a major repair," Hayato tried to reassure him, "A connector came loose, that's all. It's right at the shoulder joint. I just need you to pop it back in."

"A connector..." Taki frowned, inching towards Hayato nervously, "It really is just machine parts in there."

"Hongo never came to you for help with this stuff?" 

Hayato had meant it as a light-hearted joke, but Taki's expression hardened. "Hongo is one of my closest friends and I had to find out that he'd been experimented on by Shocker from an FBI report," Taki snapped as he reached into Hayato's chest cavity pushing aside wires and tubes to get to Hayato's shoulder, "So no, he never came to me for help."

"Did you tell him you were an FBI agent?" Hayato asked, already knowing the answer. He'd struggled to get any information out of Hongo, but he knew about the old "friend" and rival that had reconnected with him out of the blue only for the reunion to turn into a recruitment attempt. 

Hongo had been too happy to learn Taki's wedding was a ruse to be bothered that his "just a friend, no seriously" had lied about his profession. 

"That's different." Taki snapped. Hayato could feel the disconnected piece shift inside him as Taki worked. The man's hands were shaking as he struggled to fit it back its' socket. 

"How so?"

"Okay so maybe it isn't," Taki was getting more frustrated. The connector was slippery and it wasn't slotting in as easily as it should. Hayato would have to make some major adjustments later. "But what about this?" he said, glaring up at Hayato, "I had to learn that my best friend had left the country from a strange man dropping off his bike."

Hayato opened his mouth to respond, but Taki kept going. 

"Actually, no. I didn't learn he'd left the country from that man. I learned _nothing_ from him. He didn't even tell me that my friend was alive. I had no way of knowing what happened to Hongo until I got an official report more than a day later telling me he'd arrived safely in Europe."

"I thought you knew," Hayato sighed. He'd known Hongo wasn't telling him the full story, somehow he hadn't expected the idiot told no one the full story. "He told me his identity was a secret to most people. I didn't know who knew, and I didn't want to cause problems for him."

The connector finally clicked back into place and Hayato raised his arm, clenching and unclenching his fist to test everything. Taki sighed and pulled his hands free of Hayato's insides. 

"He won't talk to me anymore." Taki was staring at the ground, fists clenched at his sides. "Not directly. He'll only go through official channels." Taki's voice grew thick. He was inches from crying. "I just want to know what I did wrong."

Hayato paused, reaching for the open connection between him and the other rider. Hongo was asleep, unfortunately. Hayato had half a mind to wake him and make him face the consequences of his actions right then and there. 

But it was better to deal with Taki now and yell at the stupid repressed scientist later. 

"You didn't do anything wrong," Hayato said, clapping Taki on the shoulder, "It was a bad situation. If anything, it's my fault. Hongo got spooked by my creation and he made a boneheaded decision."

Taki nodded, a smile finally breaking the sour expression he'd had for the past couple minutes. "He's always been like that. Making dumb decision and not telling anyone about them until it's too late."

Hayato laughed as he started pulling himself together. "Well, I promise to tell you in advance when I decide to take off to another continent," he said as the chest piece he'd removed clicked back into place. 

Taki rolled his eyes, but he couldn't hold back his smile as he did it. He rubbed his eyes, unsuccessfully pretending like he was wiping dirt away and not tears. 

Hayato felt a shift in the atmosphere between them. It felt like their little dance of working side by side, but not together, was ending. It'd been fun while it lasted, but there wasn't much purpose in keeping it up. 

Hayato watched Taki as he got dressed, catching the man sneakily watching him in return. Hayato could appreciate a man that didn't lose interest even after seeing all the cybernetics. He suspected that would be a rarity in his future. 

Once he looked presentable again, Hayato snaked a flirtatious arm around Taki's waist. 

"You know usually I try and take a man out for dinner _before_ asking him to get inside me, but it seems I've done it backwards this time," he said. Taki rolled his eyes, but didn't pull away. Hayato took that as a sign to keep going. "Let me take you out. Get your mind off all this mess for an evening."

Taki sighed deeply as a warm smile lit up his whole face. "You know, I like the sound of that."


End file.
